Paige Bueckers Appears Destined To Join The Dallas Wings In 2025

The Dallas Wings finished the 2024 WNBA season on a nine-game losing streak, and they’ll be rewarded handsomely for their troubles. They were the winners of the 2025 Draft lottery, and will be making the first pick of this year’s selection process that will take place in just a couple of weeks. They’ll have their choice of the entire field of players, but it is overwhelmingly likely that they will select Paige Bueckers out of UConn with their valuable asset.

Bueckers Declares For Draft, Wings Hold 1st Overall Pick

While she is the consensus top player in this year’s draft class, there were questions about whether Bueckers would enter her name into the pool this year. Reports have surfaced in recent months that she wants to avoid playing for Dallas, and that she’d much prefer to be picked by the Los Angeles Sparks, who hold the second overall selection.

But according to league sources, Bueckers will be submitting her name into the Draft Class of 2025, a move that was announced on Friday.

Her UConn Huskies are currently in the middle of a March Madness tournament run, which they are listed as slight favorites to win. She was recently crowned the Big East Player of the Year for the third time in her collegiate career, and is up to 6th place on UConn’s all-time scoring list (ahead of Diana Taurasi). She was named the AP Player of the Year as a freshman back in 2021.

Bueckers is averaging 19.2 points, 4.8 assist, and 4.4 rebounds on 54.2% shooting overall this season.

BREAKING: Paige Bueckers will enter the 2025 @WNBA draft, she confirmed to @RebeccaLobo. pic.twitter.com/bOdezDTuYR

— espnW (@espnW) March 28, 2025

The Wings have only been in Dallas since 2016, but are one of the oldest franchises in the WNBA. They got their start in 1998, but were based in Detroit and were known as the “Shock”. They moved to Tulsa in 2010 and stayed there until 2015, and have been in Dallas ever since.

Dallas had qualified for the playoffs in three straight seasons before the 2024 campaign, which featured two first round losses and another in the semifinals.

The Sparks currently hold the rights tot the second overall pick, and the Mystics will make back-to-back selections at no.3 and no.4. The expansion Golden State Valkyries are set to pick 5th.

Bueckers and the Huskies will take on Oklahoma in the Sweet 16 on Saturday.